In this communication age, content providers are increasingly investigating ways in which to provide more content to users as well as interfacing with users.
Communication satellites have become commonplace for use in many types of communication services, e.g., data transfer, voice communications, television spot beam coverage, and other data transfer applications. In particular, data transfer may include coupling to the Internet to take advantage of the various resources provided therethrough.
One problem associated with providing mobile communications is maintaining a communications link between the moving mobile terminal and the high altitude device associated therewith. Many types of high altitude devices are used in mobile communication systems including stratospheric platforms, middle earth orbit satellites and low earth orbit satellites. The satellites move relative to the earth and the mobile terminals also move relative to the earth. Prior known systems typically do not provide reliable links particularly in high data intensive applications.
For example, in such systems a single dynamic link may degrade over time due to the relative movement of the mobile terminal relative to the high altitude communication device. As the devices move, the quality of the link drops. Therefore, the total throughput of the system is inhibited.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a reliable mobile communication system capable of handling high data rates and doing so without sacrificing connectivity or data rate.